The MDF was on the 4TH floor with phone system. A 110 had 24 pairs running to the basement to another 110. I punch down and connect the phone system By rj 45 at the phone system. I toned it at the basement but only 1 pair was ringing. My main concern was 1,2,4,5. I connect my cable tester but only 1 pair shows continuity 1&2. Did I screw up or is the 24 pair crossed? It's haunting me.
The MDF was on the 4TH floor with phone system. A 110 had 24 pairs running to the basement to another 110. I punch down and connect the phone system By rj 45 at the phone system. I toned it at the basement but only 1 pair was ringing. My main concern was 1,2,4,5. I connect my cable tester but only 1 pair shows continuity 1&2. Did I screw up or is the 24 pair crossed? It's haunting me.
You need to explain more clearly. When was one pair "ringing"?
If you don't have a pair for transmit and a pair for receive it won't work.
Need more information for a better answer, however, based on just what you wrote, it appears that the cable is open somewhere between the 4th floor and basement. It could be that the cable was used as a riser cable and each floor got so many pairs, as needed. If you can go from floor to floor and find the cable, I think you will find the cable has been opened up on a floor.
Rcaman
My thought would be, if at all possible, to use actual T1 cable to establish a good path between the two floors.
The MDF was on the 4TH floor with phone system. A 110 had 24 pairs running to the basement to another 110. I punch down and connect the phone system By rj 45 at the phone system. I toned it at the basement but only 1 pair was ringing. My main concern was 1,2,4,5. I connect my cable tester but only 1 pair shows continuity 1&2. Did I screw up or is the 24 pair crossed? It's haunting me.
Did you tone out the pairs you were going to use before you punched them down? That's your first step, doing anything else before you verify you have good pairs is a waste of time.
How are you going from the SmartJack to the 110 block and the 110 block to the T1 jack on the phone system?
Like has been said earlier. Need much more information.
You should be using two separate cables for the T-1 (one for transmit, one for receive). 22AWG shielded is what we always used. If you have to use house cable you should use different binders for the transmit and receive pairs, but....
You're better off using shielded cable. General Cable used to make (might still) a 6 pair T-1 Cable where each pair was individually shielded. If you can get that then all you need is one cable. AT&T had shielded cable for T-1 but you needed 2 cables.
As far as no continuity...What all the guys have been saying. Remove your connections and ring out the cable pairs. Test for continuity and shorts and opens.
Sam
The rule of thumb is to use shielded or, at least, different binders for transmit and receive. HOWEVER,
Verizon must have deleted that from their "Wiring For Dummies" manual. In the last 10 years, I have had every PRI and T1 brought to the demarc on house cable with adjacent pairs used or cat 3 twisted pair or house riser cable using adjacent pairs.
I had a real nasty issue with a circuit that extended 2,000' from the demarc. The building is an old Westinghouse motor manufacturing building with multiple IDFs and old, abandoned wiring closets. Verizon was hired to install cable and get the circuit to the equipment. The "team" of installers used every old cable, bridle wire and twisted pair from demarc to equipment. When they were finished, they announced "It's done. We are out of here" and they must have been "superheros" because they were faster than "The Flash" getting out of there.
Yeah, you guessed it, the circuit was so flaky it nearly was unusable. I told the client the only way to insure reliability was to install fiber from the demarc to the equipment. After several days of heated discussions with Verizon, the client and us, I finally said "I'll install the fiber, at no charge. If it works, consistently for 3 months, you will pay me the installation fee for the cable and labor. If it does not work, consistently, then you owe me nothing. Verizon assured the client I couldn't make it work. Their solution was a $15,000 "construction fee" to bring a new demarc from the street closer to the client's equipment.
I installed a 12 fiber single mode cable. I used Transition Network's mux and got two PRI circuits on just two fibers. The circuits work flawlessly. That was two years ago. Since then I have added 6 more PRI and 3 T1 circuits to the cable.
The additional circuits were billed out as new installs. I got the full price for the fiber install and a very happy client.
Rcaman
Good for you!
BTW...What did you wind up charging for the initial install of the fiber?
Sam
Very reasonable for 2K' of fiber!
Sam
This client is an old, loyal client and they have a large Mitel PBX. I knew my fiber solution would work so, I kind of hedged my bet. The other reason the fiber price was low was so I could charge them each time I added another circuit. The initial job was for 2 PRI circuits which I could have done with a 6 fiber cable. Instead, I installed a 12 fiber cable which allowed me, using the Transition Networks MUX to have a total of 11 PRI/TI circuits.
I have since installed a 24 fiber cable to feed other businesses in that end of the building.
Rcaman
Smart work & good business!
Sam
Getting back to the possible open pairs, my opinion is that basic wiring installation seems to be a lost art.
You need to understand the metallic characteristics of twisted copper pairs. Has anyone ever taught you these things? You would not be expected to know them unless you were taught.
Do you own an open meter? A Dynatel loop tester of any type? Even a kick meter? Any of them would have allowed you to find suitable pairs. Did you have a helper with you? I would say that trying to find two good pairs would be much less of a fool's errand were you to have had help doing so.
Here's how to do it alone:
Test all pairs for battery, ground, shorts, unbalance, and opens.
Strap (short circuit) and cross to ground all available spares that look like they make it all the way to the other end.
Go to the other end and start looking for good conductors (half-pairs, to be precise).
Your meter will indicate a ground on all good conductors.
Select two good pairs that are as far away from each other in the cable lay-up as possible.
Go back and make all the other pairs normal.
End of lesson.
Arthur, you're the greatest! And Ralph (Rcaman), you just separated the men from the boys!
